Welcome!

Welcome to my new legislative website. I am proud to serve as the State Senator from Illinois' 31st District, representing much of Central and Northern Lake County. I hope you find this site useful in keeping up-to-date with what is happening both in Lake County and in Springfield.

Please do not hesitate to contact my office with questions or ideas on ways I can better serve you in Springfield.

AKHAN Semiconductor, Illinois State Senator Melinda Bush and Economic Development Director Ellen Dean are pleased to announce a successful meeting with the Costa Rica Investment Promotion Agency (CINDE), having taken place on October 4th, 2016. AKHAN senior leadership was in attendance to welcome the visiting dignitaries including company founder & Chief Executive Officer Adam Khan, President & Chief Operating Officer Carl Shurboff, and Chief Financial Officer Kristie King.

This introductory meeting discussed promoting and enabling research and development in the semiconductor hardware space in the United States’s close relatives in Central and South America. In the meeting, AKHAN and CINDE discussed laying the groundwork for future deals with Costa Rican companies as well as created a development roadmap for partnership opportunities for product research, pilot development and high volume commercialization.

The meeting also focused on partnership opportunities for clean technology, and how CINDE can potentially license and collaborate on research with AKHAN, whose diamond-based semiconductors are pioneering electronics and engineering processes that minimize pollution and environmental waste.

“We are extremely excited to welcome officials from CINDE to our global HQ in Gurnee,” says AKHAN’s COO Carl Shurboff. “AKHAN’s advanced diamond materials, such as the Miraj Diamond™ Glass platform have allowed for synergistic discussions with the Costa Rican officials for expanding product manufacturing and collaborating on advanced R&D opportunities. AKHAN has been working quite effectively with both international businesses and officials, and we look forward to growing the bilateral opportunities with Costa Rica.”

Lucía Gross, Investment Promotion Manager Life Sciences sector at CINDE, notes that Costa Rica is interested in exploring new opportunities for collaboration with high level companies such as AKHAN. “Our country is the perfect location to develop research activities in several areas related to high tech manufacturing. We are very excited to establish contact and explore future agreements with [AKHAN]”.

"I'm pleased to continue working with AKHAN as they do exciting work in Lake County and take steps to forge important international partnerships," says State Senator Melinda Bush. "This kind of cooperation is key if we seek to thrive in the global economy."

Adds Gurnee Mayor Kristina Kovarik, “The Village [of Gurnee] is pleased to welcome officials from CINDE to Gurnee! Costa Rica is home to companies which are providing advanced electronics for aerospace, automotive, and other industries, including R&D for new microchip tech design. There are many exciting opportunities for synergy between Gurnee's own AKHAN Semiconductor, which is ushering in the 'Diamond Age' of computing technology, and its Costa Rican counterparts in these fields. We look forward to seeing the fruits of this collaboration in the future!”

AKHAN Semiconductor is a technology company specializing in the fabrication and application of electronics-grade diamonds as functional semiconductors.

Founded in 1982 CINDE is a private, non-profit, non-political organization declared of public interest in 1984, responsible for the attraction of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into Costa Rica.

Senator Bush joined the Coalition for Healthy Communities for a $2,000 check presentation from AT&T after helping the group secure a grant from the telecommunications company. The Coalition tackles concerns like adolescent substance abuse, cultural diversity awareness, parenting and teen sexuality education, and health concerns like immunization for children and access to primary health care.